Constitution amendment: Senate begins process to override Jonathan

The Senate on Tuesday began a process that would make the National Assembly pass into law the Fourth Alteration Act 2015, which seeks to further amend the 1999 Constitution.

It had already published the document into a gazette and members have been informed that the issue would be exhaustively debated at a closed session on Wednesday.

President Goodluck Jonathan had refused to give his assent to the document, citing irregularities in the process adopted by the federal parliament to pass the document among other reasons.

When the legislature protested his action, Jonathan headed for the Supreme Court, and the apex Court in turn, asked the National Assembly to maintain the status quo pending the determination of the president’s suit before it.

But rather than wait till June 17, which the court had fixed to start hearing on the case, the federal lawmakers went ahead to publish the amendments into a gazette.

The debate on the document could not start on Tuesday obviously because of the absence of many senators including Senate President, David Mark, at the session.

The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over the plenary, while responding to the request of the Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, who sought the approval of the members to defer the debate till Wednesday, said, “I request all of us to make ourselves available tomorrow to discuss the amendments to the constitution and be able to respond appropriately to the development.

“Please let those who are not available know that we will have closed session tomorrow(Wednesday) to discuss this item so that we will be able to fashion out the way forward.

A principal officer in the upper chamber told our correspondent on conditions of anonymity on Tuesday that the National Assembly decided to override Jonathan in order to save the country the huge human and financial resources already channeled into the exercise.

The lawmakers argued that the adjournment of the Supreme Court suit to June 18, when the lifespan of the current 7th National Assembly would have been terminated, was an indication that the bill will automatically expire and remained a wasted effort.